Glamorous in Retrospect - Done and Done

Robben Island

2005-12-09T21:17:00.000-08:00

When I was in grade 6, my French teacher, who was Welsh, told us about the time she and her husband had spent living in South Africa before coming to Canada. She had a lot of stories, but what figured most prominently in almost all of them was the terrible violence and crime they witnessed almost daily before the fall of the apartheid regime. Right away I was fascinated and started following South African politics. A few years later I was back to see this teacher again as I was doing more indepth work for a project and was looking for an interview, and she reinforced her views about life in South Africa. At this time, things were changing, but they were still bad. A few years later still I found myself in university studying political science and history, and although my studies tended to focus more on domestic issues, I was still caught up in the South African news. Half-way through my third year, shortly before the 10th anniversary of a democratic South Africa, I decided it was time to see the country I'd been watching from afar for so long, and a few applications and six months later I was off to spend five months living in Durban.

While there were many things that attracted me to the country and made me want to go there, there was one thing in particular that I wanted to see above everything else: Robben Island. Nelson Mandela, a freedom fighter and the former president of the African National Congress and of the new Republic of South Africa, spent 18 of his 27 years in prison for political reasons in the facilities at Robben Island. A stone's throw from Cape Town, the island is in the middle of icy cold shark-infested waters. Many political prisoners from the apartheid era were held in this prison, and today if you go visit your tour will be led by a former inmate who will tell you his own story and share his experiences on the island.

For anyone who has ever been interested in South African history and Nelson Mandela, this is worth every ounce of effort to get there. Having read Long Walk to Freedom far too many times, it was incredible to visit the prison and see exactly where so much of the nation's history unfolded and get a real sense for what these political prisoners must have been through to stand up for their cause. The most poignant part of the tour, though, is definitely Mandela's cell (above). The 6'4 activist spent the better part of two decades trapped in a tiny space, all to further the cause and hopefully someday bring freedom to all South Africans. Today that goal has been achieved, and although there are a lot of changes that still need to come around, Robben Island remains a living, breathing reminder of what so many brave South Africans suffered to bring a better life for all living in their nation.

Rafting the Zambezi

2005-11-29T10:54:00.000-08:00

Between the end of classes and before our exams started last year, we had a few weeks off. I'm pretty sure the intention of this extra timing is so that people can study. We decided instead to tour up north to Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Botswana, with our main goal being to raft the Zambezi.

This is the river that runs through the gorge below Victoria Falls, one of the world's seven natural wonders and a landmark that serves as a physical barrier between Zimbabwe and Zambia. Studded with 23 rapids, most grade 5's and one beyond the rating scale so that you have to get out and hike around it, the Zambezi is one of the more challenging rafting experiences available, and we were all thrilled to get in on this.

The rumours were true - that was one of the more challenging things I've done. Our guide, Kulu ("like kudu with an l or Zulu with a k") was quite strict at the beginning to ensure that everyone understood how seriously the river was to be taken. If everyone doesn't work together and push their hardest, the raft can flip and people can sometimes get hurt. We all realized how true this was when we reached rapid 12b, the second ugly sister. Number 12 consisted of three grade 5's in quick succession, so there's little time to recover between. We'd successfully pushed through 'a' but apparently weren't expecting the viciousness of 'b'. In no time our raft had been caught in a 'hole' and we were left clinging for dear life for a full 45 seconds while our raft surfed violently. Finally the raft hit the water so hard that we weren't able to stay in and we flew out. I washed under 12c and grabbed a kayak to get back to my raft. We all vowed after that incident that we'd never go back in that river and managed to stay above water for the remainder of the rapids.

The next day we were beaten, bruised, sunburnt and exhausted, but also exhilirated. It was ridiculously frightening. And amazing. I'd do it again in a second.

The French Alpes

2005-11-28T04:28:00.000-08:00

When I was living in France in high school, my host family, who were some of the sweetest people I've ever met, had a thing for skiing. This was natural, since I was living 20 minutes from Switzerland and there were a number of ski hills all around us. We often went out locally (them being very entertained by my *less good* abilities), and in late March we all hopped in the car and went to the Alpes.

When we arrived, we got our lift tickets and headed out to get a telecabine, sort of an enclosed lift, to take us to the top. The view was fantastic, but the first thing I noticed was that everytime it looked like we were reaching the top, we'd go over it and head to an even higher peak. This happened about 4 times. When we finally got off, I was a little nervous to look down and realize that when they said we'd start with something easy, what they really meant was 'scary mogul death drop'. I fell - a lot. But at least it was gorgeous up there, and we had great weather.

Whale sharks and devil rays and humpbacks, oh my!

2005-11-27T09:21:00.000-08:00

Recently I was having a discussion with a close friend who also loves travelling, and we were talking about the kind of people we like travelling with. He mentioned that he thought I'd be fun, but that I wouldn't be very adventurous and that he'd prefer to go somewhere with someone who would push him to try more extreme stuff.

His opinion quickly changed when I reminded him of some of the wilder things I've done during my travels. Like swim with whale sharks.

Last year during my 5 month stint in Africa we took some time out and stayed on the beach near the tiny village of Tofo, several hours north of Maputo, Mozambique. While we were there, we had the opportunity to go on an 'ocean safari'. Basically what this consists of his strapping on a snorkle and flippers, boating around off the coast in the Indian Ocean, and waiting for a local guide to spot something. For example, he'd notice a shadow far off in the water, boat towards it, and then announce, 'there's a shark, jump in'. Then you jump in the water and swim with the sharks, devil rays, dolphins, and whatever else you're lucky to see.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with whale sharks, they're the giant creatures pictured above with the diver. They are generally 12 metres (36 feet) long, and have no teeth. They are also quite timid, so you have to be careful not to startle them. Why? Well, when they get scared suddenly, the suck in. Everything in front of them. Including people, if they're close enough (like this diver - crazy). We had a great time splashing around, trying to get good views of these guys while in the water with them, until it occurred to me just HOW BIG they really are. I realized that I was right next to one (very suddenly), and that if I were standing next to its tail, its fins would stretch far taller than me. I had enough of the sharks at that point and got back in the boat. I was thrilled to hop out for the giant pack of devil rays, though, and these were fantastic to swim with.

We were also fortunate enough to happen in to the middle of a group of humpbacks, who sang and came out of the water all around us. We had to move when they came to close, though, as there was a strong possibility of being tipped by these things, and the boat would have been awful to try to flip in the giant waves far out in the ocean.

Not adventurous. Right.

Victoria Falls

2005-11-24T04:43:00.000-08:00

One of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, Vic Falls straddles the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia (right and left, respectively). The falls were beautiful, but we were less excited about seeing them than we were about hitting the 23 rapids on the Zambezi that runs through the gorge, most of which are grade 5s.

Vic Falls was its own fun, though. On the Zambian side, we were wandering along looking at baboons outside the site when we realized how simple it would be to just sneak in and avoid the $10 US entry fee. (At this point in our trip that seemed like an exorbitant amount of money - it's amazing how funds seem relevant depending on where you are.) So we pretended to follow the baboons around until no one was paying attention to us and just walked straight through to the falls. Although we encountered many more very vicious baboons (seriously feared for our lives with the large male ones), the sneaking in turned out to be a great idea and we got an amazing view of the falls for free. When we returned to Zimbabwe we went again to see them from that side, only to find out that they were charging $20 US for everyone who was not an African citizen (of any nationality). We had almost convinced the guard to allow us in free as we were living in South Africa, but a supervisor came by and we were out of luck. These falls were unfortunately impossible to sneak in to, and we objected to pouring that kind of money in to Mugabe's pockets for something that should by all rights be free to see, like our own Niagara Falls or the Grand Canyon. While we were discussing this seven Dutch tourists who had come all the way to see the falls overheard us and decided that they also objected, leaving right away. At this point we had basically screwed the government out of $200 US, and the guards were starting to look mad so we called it a day.